Blinkx claims to be the largest video search engine around, as well as the most advanced, and recent developments show it isn't keen on giving up its mantle. Last week's launch of Blinkx Remote - a portal to watch catch-up TV - as well as the early-July unveiling of Blinkx Red Label - a way for users to make money from their videos -are to be joined in the news archive with details of a proposed takeover of Miva. This is in addition to the search engine's primary role - it currently has more than 26 million hours of video content indexed and available on demand.
Miva is a marketing company that helps 100,000 other businesses across three continents grow - and in the past few years the two businesses have partnered several times and now Blinkx see the time being right to boost its online advertising profile. The company believes that as the internet's demand for more rich media increases (CNN last month announced a 250% rise in the number of video watches on its site), that a newer form of advertising will play a greater role in online success.
Blinkx founder Suranga Chandratillake has offered around $40million (roughly £20.9million) for the digital media firm, at $1.20 a share - $0.42 above last night's closing price. Chandratillake has urged the Mica shareholders to move quickly in considering the acquisition, making assurances that wide -scale redundancies would be unlikely.
He said: "We're excited about the opportunities presented by a combination with Miva. Blinkx has been developing advanced monetisation technologies, which we are now ready to introduce into the market. This transaction would enable us to accelerate the penetration of these more advanced technologies into the marketplace over the current planned organic approach."
The success of Blinkx, which currently has offices in London and San Francisco, as a video driven search engine with unrestricted access to Miva's advertising network provides a huge opportunity for Blinkx to expand even further.
Perhaps completely coincidently, this week also saw Seb Bishop, Miva's president and CMO, leave the company after eight years.
